Friday, February 25, 2005

Time to shit or get off the pot. Or so it felt this morning. Not sure which of the options I ended up choosing actually. But either way, I ended up with a brand new bike this morning. Well a frame, at least, and a long list of parts that will become a bike someday soon. A new member to the wider FGBC family: an IRO Mark V. Will set it up as a fixie, with bullhorn bars. Should be fast. Can't wait for spring.

Monday, February 21, 2005

See below for an update from a friend of mine in NC about a race called the soupbowl that was held the same day we did Icebike. In NC they think wet and muddy is extreme. That is debatable. But there's no question Cody is extreme. That sort of spirit puts us grizzled buke club veterans to shame. More in keeping is his Dad Alex's take on running, which I'm in full agreement with. Perhaps we should give Cody some sort of honourable title. Cody is 11 years old. Read on.

The day before the soupbowl i was thinking out loud about wether or not there might be some way in which Cody could participate. Prior to that I had told him that it was old school, not family friendly and just generally too difficult and dangerous. he did wipe out in one mtn bike race last year on a course that he had not preridden, so he was willing to accept my censure. However, once i opened the door just a little bit he became determined. so i said he should watch while we run the first 2 miles and then join in at the back of the pack when the ride began. i figured if he was fresh and took it at his own pace, he could probably do the ride, though it was all steep and technicalsingletrack. but when we got there we learned that the 2 mile run was really two laps of a one mile loop. so now (after talking to the promoter, who had set the age limit at 12 - cody just turned 11 - but was willing to let cody in)we decided he would do one lap and then ride. after that discussion i was out of the loop as i was racing at the same time. natalie and brandon did show up just before start time though. as i came through on my second running lap i asked where cody was and natalie said he is on his second lap! he felt fine, was ahead of some adults, and wanted to do the entire race, including 2 miles of running after the bike ride!whatever, i had to ride... although i was abit concerned about him going into the ride all tired. after the run i was about 20th out of 60-70 in the intermediate division, which was fine by me. there is nothing about running that i enjoy. nevertheless, i thought i would really need to hammer on the bike to move up much. not so. all i had to do was keep a slow and steady pace, no dabs, no dismounts and so many of the rest simply felloff to one side or the other. either they had no technical skills or were too tired from the run. i caught a few more on the descents, proving to be much smoother than i usually feel when riding with the local shop mechanics. in the end i was in second place at the end of the ride, only a second or two behind first place. quite satisfying, although i still bailed at that point. i had no interest in theensuing run, and was a little concerned about my knee and Cody. so i went back into the woods looking for cody. he is now so fast that i cannot catch him on a second lap, so had to shortcut the trail in order to find him. he was plugging along, ahead of 5-10 adults. incredibly he did run two more laps as well. and unfortunately, i had to jog most of one more as Brandon insisted that she was going to jog a mile and wanted me to come with her. i did 4/5ths of a lap and then let herfinish out herself where she sprinted to the finish in order to hold off a guy who was finishing the race. the whole event was a blast. cody, who was one of only 2 juniors - the other guy was 17 and kicked most people's asses, including mine - and they gave him a big trophy which he has declared the best trrophy he has ever received. cody raced for 2 hours. that;s a long time for an 11 year old to be putting in such a hard effort. amazing. as you say, it won't be too long before he is pushing me instead of vice versa when we ride. teh promoter, who saw that i dnf'ed, made sure to point outto everyone , when presenting cody's trophy to him, that he kicked his dad's ass. cody laughed, but later said that saying ass was not appropriate. so, now at races i am better known as cody's dad than anything else. not a bad designation.

Friday, February 18, 2005

Got a new cast today. Still no final word on the surgery question, but the hope at this point is that it will not be necessary. The good news is that this new cast is only on my hand, not all the way up to my elbow like the other one. Was also able to hold onto some handlebars they had there, so this version should be much more bike friendly. Thinking of giving hockey a go next week. Now that I can move my wrist again, surely I won't be too out of place in the Hummelt underworld of quasi-hockey.

Maybe that race at Holiday Mtn next week is a possibility after all. We can talk about it on Tuesday.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

after a week off, it's time to get back to the minutes... here's some of the news:

Chris had a wipe out and broke his thumb... no more hummelt hockey for him... it was that little patch of ice half a block from home... back to the doc on Friday to find out if it will need surgery. He should be in fine shape for the spring ride. Any injury is usually a good excuse for most of us to go through our litanies of injuries and medical system insights. Vic's thumb still looks funny from his break in 1976.

Vic got Juno tickets by calling 10 minutes early... he was on hold for 9 minutes and about 30 seconds... the call went to Montreal where a nice fellow waited the extra few seconds and sold him the cheap tickets... too bad about having to fix the car that day Vic

Juan Eppstein is on the single speed trail... there was a tone of determination to his comments about entering the inner sanctum of the Klub. Hopefully he'll still talk to us people with gears.

yes, of course we talked about the spring ride, and yes, someone asked where we were going... there seems a strong consensus that our ride location is Ingulf... it wavers a bit when we talk about which campsite, and nobody has yet had the nerve to suggest a date... seems silly to push the issue. Perhaps the President will show next week with "the book".

here's the link to Monte Montgomery, the incredible acoustic guitar player with the cheesy moustache. Check out Romeo & Juliet, and some of the Little Wing footage.

Monday, February 07, 2005

congrats to all fgbc (tinker) cyclists who participated in this year's event. the results are posted. rides of note include:

dr. hubie's top ten finish (8th overall)

dave u. 17th place finish (predicitions are that dave will continue to climb in the results this year).

dave epp's top 20 finish, having to start the race late because he was trying to fix the chain he broke on the pre-ride.

special thanks to the fans who came out (anita, anita, rachel, and kids) and cheered on the riders. the only thing left to do is get some of the less committed fgbc riders off their butts and join the ride next year.

Icebike has come and gone. FGBC/Tinker Creek put in a good showing, accounting for over 1/4 of the field of 35 that took to the start for the Abominable (20 km) race. All four FGBC riders finished in the top 20: 8th (Chris), 11th (Hal), 17th (Unger), 18th (Juan Eppstein). Juan Eppstein pulled off the surprise of the race. As the rest of us took to the startline, he was feverishly working to repair a broken chain. But got it done and, more importantly, got the race in. Results are online at the MCA site.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

The Icebike Race is but a few days away. Hal, Unger and Chris will represent us fittingly... well maybe not entirely... the whole business is fairly ambitious... and yet that really is some of the beauty of the FGBC: the embrace of diversity within the generous bounds of endeavour known as "biking". No one rider in the Klub captures the full essence.

Really, while the Duke takes the heat for last spring, he still showed, and he "biked". The other positive is that the above mentioned riders can always default to representing "Tinker Creek" when they're too embarassed... so, we try to serve everyone their cake, and let them eat it too. The Fort Garry Bundt Club.

While we talked about the various related clubs, there were some delicious ideas around Hal's proposed "Team Bread" racing group. It did however, just strike me that this name is very close to Team Brown, our parallel club. Just in case you all forgot about them, here's a link to their manifesto: The Team Brown Manifesto

Well, other than some dreaming about trading up in the bike world, that nearly sums up the bike related discussion as this reporter heard it.